Riley measures buckwheat height in experimental plots

Greenhills School Advanced Research student Riley Noble joined the Blesh Lab for the summer and quickly found himself up to his ears– or at least his knees– in buckwheat! Riley collected data on plant growth rates, leaf nitrogen, and biomass production of buckwheat planted after a winter cover crop trial. Now that he’s done the dirty work, he will take his data back to Greenhills and analyze the numbers in his Advanced Research class this fall. We look forward to hearing about what he finds!

Last week Samara Almonte wrapped up her time in the Blesh Lab by presenting a poster titled: “Do cover crop traits vary across monocultures and mixtures? An assessment of belowground biomass and specific leaf area.” Samara is an undergraduate at Western Washington University, and joined the Blesh Lab as a first-year Doris Duke Conservation Scholar. Though she was only with us for 8 short weeks, she jumped right in and learned all about cover crops while helping to collect, process, and analyze samples from an ongoing research trial conducted at the UM Campus Farm. We enjoyed having her as part of the team this summer!

Congratulations to PhD student, Alison Bressler! Alison was recently awarded a NCR-SARE Graduate Student Grant for her project titled “Cover crop mixtures for nitrogen use efficiency on grain farms in Southern Michigan.” The project will integrate on-farm experimentation, including assessment of biological nitrogen fixation and nitrogen mineralization rates, with applied, outreach activities focused on management of legume-grass cover crop mixtures.

Anne Elise passed her pre-candidacy exams (prelims) just in time for the holiday weekend, and is now a PhD candidate. Congratulations on passing this important milestone, Anne Elise!

Congratulations to Etienne Herrick, one of a select group of 19 undergraduates to win an award for her Honors Thesis. Etienne received the Virginia Voss Memorial Scholarship for excellence in writing for her thesis titled “Summer Cover Crops: Functional Traits and Ecosystem Services.”

Sydney (L) and Ami take a break from fieldwork and enjoy fresh garlic scapes at Dyer Family Organic Farm

This summer we are joined by Aminata Fofana and Sydney Fuller, two undergraduates in the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at UM-SEAS. Ami and Sydney are already enjoying some of the perks of doing research on local vegetable farms!

Two new PhD students, Alison Bressler and Anne Elise Stratton, have joined the lab this fall. You can read more about their backgrounds and research interests here.

Wittman, H., Chappell, M.J., Abson, D., Bezner-Kerr, R., Blesh, J., Hanspach, J., Perfecto, I., and J. Fischer. 2016. A social-ecological perspective on harmonizing food security and biodiversity conservation. Regional Environmental Change. doi:10.1007/s10113-016-1045-9.

Schipanski, M.E., MacDonald, G.K., Rosenzweig, S., Chappell, M.J., Bennett, E.M., Bezner-Kerr, R., Blesh, J., Crews, T., Drinkwater, L.E., Lundgren, J., and C. Schnarr. 2016. Realizing resilient food systems. BioScience. doi:10.1093/biosci/biw052.

Ryan explains the benefits of legume cover crops

Ryan Nelson, our very own Doris Duke Conservation Scholar, presented a poster today entitled “Out of Thin Air: Assessing Legume Nitrogen Fixation Inputs on Organic Farms” at the Diversity in Environmental Programs Symposium (Ann Arbor). This symposium capped off the 8 week DDCS Program, which brought undergraduates from around the country to the University of Michigan. Best wishes, Ryan, as you head back to Wesleyan University for another semester!